Book 55: The Attonement
by ShadowXene
Summary: What if Rachel hadn't died? What if the Blade ship hadn't escaped? Where would that leave the Animorphs? Read to find out. Co-written with a friend. R/R!!! ^^
1. Prologue-Rachel

Rachel

I lunged, straight for the polar bear. Go for the main opponent first. Go for the danger. I barreled straight into him. It was a train crash. I slammed him, my shoulder into the side of his head.

He _had_ a bear morph. I _was_ my bear morph.

Experience is very helpful.

The polar bear staggered. I extended my claws and in a move no real bear had ever learned, I drove them straight into him. Like four daggers, right beneath the front right shoulder: the heart. I hit him again before the cape buffalo slammed me and knocked me, windless, rolling into the bulkhead.

The buffalo backed up and came at me again, the wide, thick horns like a battering ram. But the beast's hooves were designed for dirt and grass not the slippery floor. He hit me in my exposed belly. It would have killed me if he'd been up to speed. Even so it crushed the last ounce of air from my lungs. I felt like someone had dropped a house on me. 

A lioness was on my face, clawing madly, like a crazed alley cat. The other one was trying to bite my neck – a waste of time. No one bites through a grizzly's thick fur. 

I was down, buried under mad fur. I was down, slashed at, punched, hammered, clawed. My legs were in the air, helpless!

I drew my legs close and shifted my weight. Got my legs under me. I lifted myself and the two lions. I shook myself violently and threw off the lion who'd been at my face. I aimed a blow at her and managed to stun her a little. It was all I needed. I rammed into her, throwing her into one of the consoles and knocking her out.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the polar bear trying to demorph. It's the only way when your morph body is dying: demorph and fast. Die in morph and you're dead. Period. Unfortunately for the Yeerk with the polar bear morph, he didn't demorph fast enough. At least it was one less I had to deal with.

But I was missing something. Something nagged at me.

Tom! Jake yelled. Tom!

The cape buffalo butted me in the hindquarters and spun me around. The lion on back was reaching around like it was trying to strangle me, digging busy claws into the folds of loose skin around my throat.

I managed to reach behind me and grab the lion on my back by the skin at the back of its neck with my claws. With a surge of energy I threw the lion at the buffalo and it got impaled on the buffalo's horns. 

I tried to stagger forward, in search of Tom, but the buffalo had done some damage. My hindquarters were numb and weak.

Tom! Rachel, Tom! Look out for Tom!

Jake's voice was far away. Strange.

The slick floor that handicapped the buffalo now worked against me, too. I couldn't get enough traction with my blood-slicked pads.

My front right leg suddenly buckled. It was a pail of ice water in my face, a sudden realization.

My blood. That was my blood on the floor.

He's a snake! a voice cried. Rachel!

A flash of movement, so fast it was a blur. Something in my eyes! Burning. I couldn't see. That's okay, okay, bears can't see all that well anyway, I had… I had…

A cobra, some distant, strange, analytical part of my brain noted. Tom's morph: a cobra. The venom was in my eyes.

I couldn't think. Couldn't see.

__

Demorph.

No. Tom would kill me.

I realized I was no longer standing. I was flat on the floor. I heard my own slow breathing. I should be panting.

Something striking at my face again and again. The cobra. Couldn't even see him.

I had failed. Tom. Alive.

Die human, he said. Just die.

Rachel! Tobias cried.

Help me, Tobias, I pleaded.

I cant… I…

He didn't understand. Help me get him. Help me get him!

Okay. Okay. He's… your left paw, toward your face. Get ready. Has to be fast.

I'm ready.

Now!

I jerked my paw, claws extended toward my face. 

Tom shrieked. I couldn't see him. But I felt something squirming. Like a worm on a fishhook. The snake was impaled on my claws.

No! Tom cried in outrage.

I brought my paw to my mouth.

Sorry, I said vaguely.

Jake, stop her! the Yeerk screamed with Tom's mouth.

I bit down on the snake.

I lay there in suspended animation.

I felt myself floating.

The bear was melting. Old grizzly bear, my friend. Good old bear.

I demorphed. The snake was still in my mouth. Motionless. 

I demorphed.

I was Rachel again, the human Rachel, alive, unhurt. I could have bounded up and gone off to the mall to shop. Unfortunately, I still had something to finish first.

I spit the snake out.

I saw the viewscreen. I could see Cassie, Jake, Marco, Ax. 

And Tobias. 

He had morphed. He was his human self once more. He was crying. I'm not sure if it was with relief or worry or both. 

I turned away. I still had a job to finish. 

The lioness I had knocked unconscious was beginning to wake and the buffalo was struggling to remove the dead lion from its horns, keeping it occupied, although I knew it would be free in a few minutes.

I began to morph once more. Back to grizzly. I could feel the familiar changes as shaggy dark brown fur began to grow over my body and my insides squished and changed and relocated themselves. I felt my nose and mouth push out forming my snout as my sight dimmed and my hearing and smell sharpened. 

I completed my morph just as the lion regained its wits and the buffalo finally succeeded in freeing itself.

The lioness charged first, seeing as the buffalo still had to orient himself. 

I was fully rejuvenated and ready for battle, although I was tired. 

The lioness leaped for my face but one swipe from my heavy paw sent her reeling in midair. She succeeded in righting herself and began to charge again but it was too late. Another powerful strike and she lay still, her skull crushed.

I turned my attention back to the buffalo who was ready to come at me again.

He charged at me, though again the smooth floor hindered him, and I wasn't about to make the same mistake again. I waited until he was close then rolled off to one side and, placing both paws onto its shoulder, used to momentum of his run to push him with all my might toward the nearest console side. 

The strength of my push plus the slipperiness of the blood-covered floor sent the buffalo hurtling at a tremendous speed toward the edge of the console. He hit with a loud _CRRCK_, which suggested his spine had snapped. 

I was exhausted. 

I sank down onto the floor and began to demorph.

The changes seemed to happen slowly and when I looked up at the viewscreen I could see that the others had already demorphed as well. Cassie had a pained expression on her face. Marco's expression was unreadable. Tobias's expression was one of pain, grief, and overwhelming relief.

Then I saw Jake.

His face was one of control. One of indifference, composure.

But his eyes… 

His eyes were haunted, filled with pain, grief, utter disgust for himself. The eyes of those who have seen something so repulsive as this war, and known that they had taken part in causing it.

And I knew…

I knew… that my own eyes held the same expression.


	2. Tobias

First of all, we want to thank Southrn Belle and Angelofcloud9 for their reviews. Umm…if you review we will get the chapters out faster so if you want more please review.

Disclaimer: This is the only one we're gonna make so listen up. We do not own Animorphs, K.A. Applegate does. So there's no use in trying to sue. We do not have anything of value and we are not making a profit out of this. 

  
Tobias 

I didn't know what to feel. Should I feel relief that Rachel's still alive, pity for those she killed, or anger at Jake for sending her on a mission that could have ended her life permanently. I honestly didn't know. All I knew was that Rachel was still alive and I also knew that Jake was beating himself up for ever letting her go on that mission even if he didn't show it. In a way I guess I knew that she was the perfect one for the job. Out of all of us she was the only one who really enjoyed going out there and fighting the Yeerks. Yet, when she looked up to the viewscreen after finishing the fight, I saw something there that I had never seen before and had never expected to see. It was utter disgust, not at the scene around her, at herself. Rachel had alway been self-confident, she had had a respect for herself. But as I looked into her eyes it seemed to me that the respect and confidence she had once had was gone. No more. Her eyes seemed dead to me at the moment. Then she had passed out. Jake had sent Ax to go get her and the Blade ship. He had left in one of the Bug fighters. 

For a while no one spoke. No one dared. The silence was only broken when I heard Ax's hooves come clopping in daintily. I looked up and saw Ax walking toward us with a very tired-looking Rachel walking beside him and Toby Hamee, the Hork-Bajir seer, coming in behind them both. Rachel walked straight towards me. As soon as she reached me she collapsed. I caught her before she hit the floor and pulled her back up. She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in my shoulder. I simply held her for a moment when I suddenly felt something wet on my shoulder. It took me a moment to realize she was crying. The thought of her even capable of crying seemed strange to me, since she had always been so strong. I didn't do anything but simply let her cry, holding her and offering what little comfort I could give. Her crying grew from silent tears to a loud sobbing and almost everyone around me seemed as disturbed to see Rachel crying as I was. 

Almost everyone... 

Jake didn't seem disturbed or surprised. I noticed a slight glint in his eyes and I was shocked to realize that they were unshed tears. It took me a moment but I realized that it shouldn't surprise me at all. Jake was the one that had suffered the most losses during this war and he had had to be the strongest of us all. All at once it hit me just how much pressure had been put on Jake. He was the one who had had to make all the calls, the one who had to decide and carry the weight of that decision, be it good or bad. He had been the one to sentence so many Yeerks, humans, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons alike to death and then live with the knowledge that he had been the one to make that decision. Sure, it had weighed down on all of us, but Jake had made the decision, not just carried it out. 

I knew at that moment Jake was reliving all of the decisions he had made, starting at the beginning, all the way to flushing the Yeerks from the Pool ship and sending Rachel out to kill Tom. He was reliving all the deaths he had caused, directly or indirectly. Suddenly it didn't seem fair to me that it had been Jake who had been the one to carry all the weight during this war. How long had it been? Months? A year? More? He deserved to cry, I guess. But he couldn't, hadn't been able to. He had had to stay strong for us, to keep us going. He was there to make us believe that there was still hope when he hadn't had any himself. It was killing him, I knew. If he stayed like that without letting it all out, it would kill him. We had all had our final few years of carefree life stolen from us, but no one had aged more than Jake. All the decisions piled on top of deaths piled on worries and strategies and plans and so on had aged him far more than he should've. And it wasn't fair. 

Cassie. She still had most of her life intact. Her parents were still alive and free. She was unhurt...physically at least. Cassie had never liked the killing, the fighting. She had always loathed it. And it had taken it's toll on her. She wasn't the same. I hadn't really known her that well back in the beginning, but I still knew she wasn't the same. Back then, she had seemed more carefree, worrying only about school, helping her father at the clinic, and of course Jake. Now, she was more cautious, wary, less trusting. We all were. She would never forget it, never could. I caught Cassie's eye and tilted my head toward Jake. She nodded slightly and went over to him to comfort him. I noticed him relax slightly at Cassie's presence. 

Marco is the one I think has changed in the most subtle ways. His life didn't change all that much. Besides having the worry of the Yeerks that is. The biggest change was finding out that his mother was still alive, which if you ask me is a very big thing. He became more sarcastic and pulled off more jokes than before, according to Jake. But of course that was because making jokes and being sarcastic is Marco's way of dealing with fear and worries. I guess his outlook on life changed a lot too, just like the rest of us. 

Ax. I can't really say much about him because I never knew him before he came to Earth, but being his best friend, his _shorm_, I do know that he changed as well. Not just from the war, but also by being islolated from his people and living with us humans. You could say he developed a strange, twisted sense of humor, probably from hanging with Marco. He learned about human culture, the good and the bad. He also learned about food...and taste... The war, I think, left him with different thoughts about honor, how there is no clear good or bad. We had all learned about those shades of gray. 

Rachel... She had changed so much as well. I hadn't exactly known her back when it all began, but I had already liked her, and I had noticed her from afar. She had been different. Carefree, different priorities. She used to think that shopping was big priority in her life. That changed. Her attitude too. She became ruthless, she, of all of us, enjoyed the war. Enjoyed going out to hunt down Yeerks on our missions. She had always been the one to say 'Let's do it.' She had known that she was changing too. She had felt it. Behind her facade of the self-confident, strong person, I had seen that the changes had troubled her. 

As I held her in my arms though, it seemed as if she had finally snapped, her spirit had been broken. Instead of triumph, as she would have felt on a normal mission, she felt defeat. She no longer found enjoyment in battle, she loathed it more than Cassie did. Just like Jake. I wondered how I never noticed before, but they were so alike, now more than ever. I had often seen Rachel's crazy smile, the one she put on before going on a mission, on Jake's face, even if I had never noticed it was the same as hers before. They were both strong, too strong. I also knew that if Rachel had died today, Jake would isolate himself, become withdrawn, kill himself slowly by keeping that weight inside. Rachel had changed too much too fast and then suddenly had been yanked the other way all to quickly. It had been to much for her. Rachel was one of the strongest people I know. But even she couldn't handle that. I felt her sobbing subside a bit, and then a bit more as she ran out of tears to cry. After a moment she fell asleep leaning against me. 

Had I changed? Yes. In more than just the obvious way. Yes, I had gotten trapped in morph as a red-tailed hawk. Yes, I killed my food each day. Yes, I couldn't go around with my friends for very long if I wanted to keep my morphing ability to help them. And of course, the worry of the Yeerks. But in my case, I think that the good outweighs the bad. I got away from the people who never cared about me, my aunt and uncle, and found people who would risk their lives to save me and occasionally had. I found my mother, I met my father, if only briefly, and gained the best friends anyone could ever have. We had been through everything together. For me, my life is better than it was before, no matter the danger. Not only that, but my crush for Rachel had grown into something more over the time that we had gotten to know each other. It had grown into love. Many people say that young people don't know what love is, that they get disillusioned, that they mistake a simple attratction or crush for love. But I knew that loved Rachel. I knew that she loved me back, even if she never said it. And she knew that I loved her as well, even if I hadn't said it either. We didn't need to. We knew. And I know, that if she had died today, I would have isolated myself, just like Jake. I would've been lost. She was the one thing I couldn't live without. I would have let the hawk instincts take over once again, but this time for good. I would slowly have let my mind die. I shifted Rachel's weight so I could pick her up and carry her. She was so tired that she didn't even stir. 

The rest of what happened is a blur. I vaguely remember Jake telling Cassie to warn Erek the Chee to get off the ship if he wanted his secret kept, then going out to deal with the Yeerks that surrendered with Toby. 

I remember learning that Jara Hamee had died in battle. 

I remember freeing Alloran-Semitur-Corrass from Visser One's hold. 

I remember an angry Andalite War-Prince arguing with Jake about the remaining Yeerks. 

I remember him boarding the Pool ship to argue some more and Jake winning and Ax being promoted to rank of Prince. 

I remember demorphing at some point and then remorphing back to human. 

I remember dealing with the remainder of Yeerks. Freeing the host bodies and giving the Yeerks morphing technology and animals to morph, letting them become _nothlits_. Giving morphing tecnology to the Taxxons and letting them morph anacondas to be relocated to the Amazon later while the newly freed Hork-Bajir joined the colony. 

I remember landing and leaving the Yeerk Pool ship, Rachel still being carried in my arms. 

I remember being mobbed by reporters, whom we walked by, although Marco wanted to stop and talk, but decided now was not the time. 

I remember going back to camp for the last time, even though we could have gone home. 

But most of all, I remember sitting next to Rachel in my human morph when she had awoken watching the stars and talking quietly about all that had happened. We talked mostly of trivial things, things of no importance. We fell silent for awhile before I asked a question I wanted to know the answer to. 

"What made you change?" 

The question seemed vague even to me, but Rachel knew what I meant. 

"Laying there on the Blade ship, with the Yeerks I'd killed laying around me motionless, I suddenly remembered every single fight I'd fought in. I remembered every single Yeerk I'd killed. Only then did I realize exactly what this war was. A war, a hard, long, terrible war. And when I realized that I had played a major part in the destruction of millions of individual sentient beings did I realize exactly what a war is about," she said softly. "Killing," she said bitterly. "Killing is what wars are all about, no matter how good the cause." 

After she answered my question we both felt silent once more. After a moment I could feel her looking at me, watching me, so I turned my head to look at her. 

Our eyes met. 

Even in the darkness I could make out the depth in her blue eyes. We didn't need to say anything. We already knew. But I said it anyway. "I love you," I told her softly. 

"I love you too," she replied. 

"I know," I repiled back. I leaned closer to her and kissed her softly on the lips. I felt her wrap her arms around my neck as I put my arms around her waist and deepened the kiss. When we broke apart she leaned her head against my chest and I rested my head atop hers, our arms still around each other. We simply sat there and watched the stars, content simply knowing we had each other. 


	3. Marco

One Year Later 

Marco 

I was visiting Ax in the Dome ship _Elafangor_. Or should I say Prince Aximili. Let's just say that my visit ended as soon as I spotted Tobias and Rachel making out behind a _derrishoul_ tree in the dome area of the Dome ship. I called out to them. 

"GAG! BARF!" 

Rachel and Tobias split apart faster than the eye could see. 

"MARCO YOU LITTLE DIMWIT!!!!" 

Rachel screamed, although the threat was dimmed a bit because of the bright red blush across her cheeks and the fact that she was sitting in Tobias's lap. Tobias grinned sheepishly, a bright scarlet blush on his face. In a flash Rachel leaped off of Tobias's lap running straight after me, Tobias right behind her. What could I do? Two people on the war rampage coming straight for me, wanting to strangle me for breaking up their little make-out session. Like any brave person would do I turned tail and ran out of there as fast as I could heading for the exit. 

Apparently, both Tobias and Rachel were considerably faster than me and they caught up to me in minutes. I was already close to the ramp leading to the outside and freedom. Only three more steps away and I would be spared from the wrath of Xena: Warrior Princess and her boyfriend the Bird-Boy. The next thing I knew, I was tumbling down the ramp head over heels. They had tripped me!!!!! I braced myself for the hard landing but instead I landed on something really soft. For a moment I didn't move trying to pull myself together from having my brains scrambled from falling down the ramp. I opened my eyes only to see a pair of big green eyes staring back at me in shock and disbelief. 

I couldn't believe it!!! I had landed on top of a very pretty girl!!!! 

We both stayed like that for a minute simply staring at each other in shock. Then, I heard bouts of hysterical laughter coming from behind us. Then it dawned on me exactly how compromising our position was. I was lying sprawled on top of her and undoubtedly my friends were standing right behind us rolling on the floor with laughter at my humiliation. I got up quicker than humanly possible and held out my hand sheepishly to help the girl up. She took it and I pulled her up and then looked around. We were surrounded by hundreds of Andalite warriors looking at us with confused expressions on their faces. Not that you could tell unless you knew how to make sense of eye movements. I saw Tobias and Rachel right at the front of the ring beside Ax who was chuckling slightly in thought-speech. Other Andalites were looking at him strangely. Tobias had his arms around Rachel's shoulders, leaning against her to keep from falling to the floor from laughter. Rachel was holding her sides and gasping for air in between laughs. I saw Jake and Cassie standing on the other side of Ax, Cassie leaning on Jake's arm for support while Jake leaned on Ax's shoulder a bit to keep from falling. 

For a moment I felt like breaking out into hysterical laughter myself but instead I made a joke. 

"Ha ha," I said. "Although it's just my luck that I get tripped by Xena and Bird-Boy here and then just so happen to fall on top of a very pretty girl." 

This only caused my friends to laugh harder and this time Tobias and Rachel really did fall to the floor laughing and Cassie came pretty close too. The only reason Jake didn't come close to falling on the floor was the simple fact that he was leaning on Ax, who was chuckling anymore. He was downright laughing, a very disturbing feeling to hear an Andalite laughing in your head, which only caused the other Andalites to look even more strangely at him, diverting all four eyes to stare at their Prince. The outburst in laughing only served to deepen my embarrassment and I felt a heat rise in my cheeks and I knew for sure that I was blushing, a lot.   


I couldn't take it anymore. I turned and stomped out of there as fast as I could. This made them laugh even harder but I ignored them. I walked as fast as I could to the river on the far side of the meadow over a hill. I heard soft footsteps behind me and I knew the girl was following me. Let her. I didn't care. I just had to get away from my friends. 

When I reached the river edge I sat down by the bank. I felt the girl sit down next to me. 

"Why did you follow me?" I asked. 

"Well, I couldn't leave without a proper introduction. Also, I was kinda freaked out with all those Anda-whatever-you-call-them alien people." 

I chuckled slightly. "They're called Andalites and I admit that they can creep you out if you're not used to them." 

"I'm Kris Strasser," she said holding out her hand. 

"Marco Shields," I replied shaking her hand. 

"Well, now that we got past the introductions, can you please tell me how you know those Andalites?" 

I raised an eyebrow slightly surprised. I thought that everyone on the planet knew about us by now. Apparently not. What a major blow to my ego. "Excuse me?" 

"How do you know those Andalite alien things?" 

"Hmm……tough question. Being and Animorph though you kinda _have_ to know them. Otherwise you'll be totally lost and either end up blowing up our allies or condemning our planet to total annihilation." I said in a matter-of-fact voice. 

I could see realization slowly dawning on her face. She looked at me in disbelief. I nodded. The look of shock left her face and instead her eyes narrowed in suspicion. 

"How do I know for sure that you're an animorph? Morph something." 

"What would you like me to morph?" 

"How about a wolf?" 

"Sure, why not. Now morphing is not pretty. You're not gonna like what you see. Most likely I'll probably grow fur before I start any other changes and I'll look like a hairy caveman. Or the changes could start before I have the fur. Who know? Morphing is never logical so don't freak out." 

Kris nodded. I shrugged and began taking off my outer clothing. I noticed her blush and look away. I laughed. 

"No biggie. We got over this problem a long time ago. But we can only morph skintight clothes so I'm just taking off the loose outer stuff. I'll still be decent." 

If anything she blushed harder but looked up again anyway. 

When I finally stood barefoot and in my morphing outfit on the soft grass I began to concentrate on the wolf DNA inside of me. I felt the changes begin rapidly. My nose and mouth melted together and pushed out to form my wolf muzzle and the coarse gray fur began to ripple over my body. I dropped to all fours with a popping noise as my knees suddenly changed direction and stared at my hands. They weren't really hands anymore though. The fingers were shrinking and tough dark pads formed on the underside of my paw. I felt the nauseating sensation associated with guts sloshing around, rearranging and changing themselves inside my body. I felt my spine suddenly stretch out to form my long bushy wolf's tail and my sight, hearing, and sense of smell sharpened. The morph was complete. I didn't worry about the wolf's instincts. I had done the morph many times before and I knew how to handle it. I trotted over to Kris who just sat there stupefied and staring at me in shock. 

Uh…are you okay?> 

She came out of her stupor. "That was so cool!!!!" she exclaimed. 

It is pretty cool but you never want to morph bugs. Those will just freak you out no matter what.> 

"I imagine it would." 

I lay down next to her and put my head on her lap. I curled my tail around my body and just lay basking in the sun for awhile until I felt an itch on the spot between my ears. I hoped it wasn't fleas. 

Uh…can you please scratch me behind the ears? Pretty please?> 

"Scratch it yourself." 

See, that's the thing. I can't reach.> 

To prove my point I sat up on my haunches and tried to scratch the spot between my ears. I twisted and turned every which wat but I couldn't get to that one spot. 

Please?> I asked again, turning my sad brown wolf eyes toward her. 

"Oh all right," she sighed and scratched me behind the ears. I closed my eyes and wagged my tail in pleasure. 

"You owe me though," she grumbled. 

Fine. How about I take you out to dinner as repayment?> I asked. 

"All right." 

That settled I lay back down, once again put my head on her lap and basked in the warm glow of the sun's warm rays.   



	4. Marco

One Year Later 

Marco 

I was visiting Ax in the Dome ship _Elafangor_. Or should I say Prince Aximili. Let's just say that my visit ended as soon as I spotted Tobias and Rachel making out behind a _derrishoul_ tree in the dome area of the Dome ship. I called out to them. 

"GAG! BARF!" 

Rachel and Tobias split apart faster than the eye could see. 

"MARCO YOU LITTLE DIMWIT!!!!" 

Rachel screamed, although the threat was dimmed a bit because of the bright red blush across her cheeks and the fact that she was sitting in Tobias's lap. Tobias grinned sheepishly, a bright scarlet blush on his face. In a flash Rachel leaped off of Tobias's lap running straight after me, Tobias right behind her. What could I do? Two people on the war rampage coming straight for me, wanting to strangle me for breaking up their little make-out session. Like any brave person would do I turned tail and ran out of there as fast as I could heading for the exit. 

Apparently, both Tobias and Rachel were considerably faster than me and they caught up to me in minutes. I was already close to the ramp leading to the outside and freedom. Only three more steps away and I would be spared from the wrath of Xena: Warrior Princess and her boyfriend the Bird-Boy. The next thing I knew, I was tumbling down the ramp head over heels. They had tripped me!!!!! I braced myself for the hard landing but instead I landed on something really soft. For a moment I didn't move trying to pull myself together from having my brains scrambled from falling down the ramp. I opened my eyes only to see a pair of big green eyes staring back at me in shock and disbelief. 

I couldn't believe it!!! I had landed on top of a very pretty girl!!!! 

We both stayed like that for a minute simply staring at each other in shock. Then, I heard bouts of hysterical laughter coming from behind us. Then it dawned on me exactly how compromising our position was. I was lying sprawled on top of her and undoubtedly my friends were standing right behind us rolling on the floor with laughter at my humiliation. I got up quicker than humanly possible and held out my hand sheepishly to help the girl up. She took it and I pulled her up and then looked around. We were surrounded by hundreds of Andalite warriors looking at us with confused expressions on their faces. Not that you could tell unless you knew how to make sense of eye movements. I saw Tobias and Rachel right at the front of the ring beside Ax who was chuckling slightly in thought-speech. Other Andalites were looking at him strangely. Tobias had his arms around Rachel's shoulders, leaning against her to keep from falling to the floor from laughter. Rachel was holding her sides and gasping for air in between laughs. I saw Jake and Cassie standing on the other side of Ax, Cassie leaning on Jake's arm for support while Jake leaned on Ax's shoulder a bit to keep from falling. 

For a moment I felt like breaking out into hysterical laughter myself but instead I made a joke. 

"Ha ha," I said. "Although it's just my luck that I get tripped by Xena and Bird-Boy here and then just so happen to fall on top of a very pretty girl." 

This only caused my friends to laugh harder and this time Tobias and Rachel really did fall to the floor laughing and Cassie came pretty close too. The only reason Jake didn't come close to falling on the floor was the simple fact that he was leaning on Ax, who was chuckling anymore. He was downright laughing, a very disturbing feeling to hear an Andalite laughing in your head, which only caused the other Andalites to look even more strangely at him, diverting all four eyes to stare at their Prince. The outburst in laughing only served to deepen my embarrassment and I felt a heat rise in my cheeks and I knew for sure that I was blushing, a lot.   


I couldn't take it anymore. I turned and stomped out of there as fast as I could. This made them laugh even harder but I ignored them. I walked as fast as I could to the river on the far side of the meadow over a hill. I heard soft footsteps behind me and I knew the girl was following me. Let her. I didn't care. I just had to get away from my friends. 

When I reached the river edge I sat down by the bank. I felt the girl sit down next to me. 

"Why did you follow me?" I asked. 

"Well, I couldn't leave without a proper introduction. Also, I was kinda freaked out with all those Anda-whatever-you-call-them alien people." 

I chuckled slightly. "They're called Andalites and I admit that they can creep you out if you're not used to them." 

"I'm Kris Strasser," she said holding out her hand. 

"Marco Shields," I replied shaking her hand. 

"Well, now that we got past the introductions, can you please tell me how you know those Andalites?" 

I raised an eyebrow slightly surprised. I thought that everyone on the planet knew about us by now. Apparently not. What a major blow to my ego. "Excuse me?" 

"How do you know those Andalite alien things?" 

"Hmm……tough question. Being and Animorph though you kinda _have_ to know them. Otherwise you'll be totally lost and either end up blowing up our allies or condemning our planet to total annihilation." I said in a matter-of-fact voice. 

I could see realization slowly dawning on her face. She looked at me in disbelief. I nodded. The look of shock left her face and instead her eyes narrowed in suspicion. 

"How do I know for sure that you're an animorph? Morph something." 

"What would you like me to morph?" 

"How about a wolf?" 

"Sure, why not. Now morphing is not pretty. You're not gonna like what you see. Most likely I'll probably grow fur before I start any other changes and I'll look like a hairy caveman. Or the changes could start before I have the fur. Who know? Morphing is never logical so don't freak out." 

Kris nodded. I shrugged and began taking off my outer clothing. I noticed her blush and look away. I laughed. 

"No biggie. We got over this problem a long time ago. But we can only morph skintight clothes so I'm just taking off the loose outer stuff. I'll still be decent." 

If anything she blushed harder but looked up again anyway. 

When I finally stood barefoot and in my morphing outfit on the soft grass I began to concentrate on the wolf DNA inside of me. I felt the changes begin rapidly. My nose and mouth melted together and pushed out to form my wolf muzzle and the coarse gray fur began to ripple over my body. I dropped to all fours with a popping noise as my knees suddenly changed direction and stared at my hands. They weren't really hands anymore though. The fingers were shrinking and tough dark pads formed on the underside of my paw. I felt the nauseating sensation associated with guts sloshing around, rearranging and changing themselves inside my body. I felt my spine suddenly stretch out to form my long bushy wolf's tail and my sight, hearing, and sense of smell sharpened. The morph was complete. I didn't worry about the wolf's instincts. I had done the morph many times before and I knew how to handle it. I trotted over to Kris who just sat there stupefied and staring at me in shock. 

Uh…are you okay?> 

She came out of her stupor. "That was so cool!!!!" she exclaimed. 

It is pretty cool but you never want to morph bugs. Those will just freak you out no matter what.> 

"I imagine it would." 

I lay down next to her and put my head on her lap. I curled my tail around my body and just lay basking in the sun for awhile until I felt an itch on the spot between my ears. I hoped it wasn't fleas. 

Uh…can you please scratch me behind the ears? Pretty please?> 

"Scratch it yourself." 

See, that's the thing. I can't reach.> 

To prove my point I sat up on my haunches and tried to scratch the spot between my ears. I twisted and turned every which wat but I couldn't get to that one spot. 

Please?> I asked again, turning my sad brown wolf eyes toward her. 

"Oh all right," she sighed and scratched me behind the ears. I closed my eyes and wagged my tail in pleasure. 

"You owe me though," she grumbled. 

Fine. How about I take you out to dinner as repayment?> I asked. 

"All right." 

That settled I lay back down, once again put my head on her lap and basked in the warm glow of the sun's warm rays.   



	5. Jake

~ Jake 

I can't believe it. 

I truly can't believe it. 

I can't believe I let Rachel talk me into going mall-crawling with her. 

My mall crawling psycho of a cousin said, "Aww come on Jake, it's gonna be fun, Cassie and Tobias are coming." 

And then I said "Oh, alright." 

You are not gonna believe how exhausting it is. 

According to Rachel I need a new fashion statement. 

According to Rachel _Cassie _needs a new fashion statement. 

According to Rachel _Tobias _needs a new fashion statement. 

Shopping with Rachel: the deadliest thing in the world. 

Ummm.... Besides the Yeerks. 

So there we were going back to the Gap because Rachel had forgotten to check out a sales rack. 

"Rachel, how many more times are we going back to the Gap?" Cassie asked despairingly. 

I would have put my arm around her, but SOMEHOW Rachel got me and Tobias to carry the bags for her. "Being the strong men," Rachel had said grinning at Tobias. Cassie giggled. I blushed. 

"Oohhhh! Cassie try this and this and..... Not this." 

Five minutes later one more bag came for me to carry. 

Finally after 100 hours of shopping, Rachel let us have a rest. 

At food court…   
Four floors down… 

The elevators are all full… 

The steps are across the mall… 

Weight on me = 1 ton… 

Finally we found a seat and dropped the bags and looked around. 

We were in a fortress of bags. 

"Uh…who's gonna order the pizza?" Rachel asked. 

Two pairs of eyes stared at Rachel. Tobias was asleep on her shoulder. She looked down at his face. "Aww…aren't you a cute little baby!" she cooed, stroking his cheek gently and smiling softly. 

Rachel glanced back at us and sighed. "Oh alright." 

She was about to get up when a voice called out from somewhere beyond the impenetrable wall of bags. 

"Knock, knock, anybody in there?" 

I could recognize that sarcastic tone anywhere. It was Marco, had to be. 

"Marco?" I asked. 

"Who else? Uh…any reason you're hiding behind this huge pile of bags?" 

"No, not really. We wanted to eat something, but there were too many bags." 

"I see." 

"Marco, while you're out there, can you order us two large pizzas? One supreme, and one pepperoni? That should be enough for all of us. I was gonna go get it but Tobias fell asleep on my shoulder and I don't want to wake him by moving," Rachel told him. 

"Sure, why not, just send the slave." 

We all rolled our eyes. Typical Marco. 

"While we're all waiting, did I tell you that I got a new contract with Seventeen Magazine. They agreed to put in a section on the latest styles in every issue." 

"Hmm…wha? You got what?" Tobias asked groggily, jerking out of his nap. 

"I got a new contract." 

Rachel worked as a fashion designer. She made up styles and ideas for her clothing line named _Rachelle_. She has made tons of millions of dollars with her clothes. It's the most popular brand. 

Tobias is now an ornithology professor, not that he even finished high school. He was a bird long enough to know everything about them. He makes a substantial amount of money as well. 

"Uh…ok, has anyone got any idea how I'm gonna get in?" Marco asked. 

"Uh…" 

"Here…" Rachel pulled aside a few bags, making a sort of door in our "fortress". 

That made enough room for Marco to get through with the two pizzas, which he set on the large table. 

"My fellow Animorphs, this is Kris Strasser…" 

Kris was wearing a pair of black bellbottoms and a dark green halter-top that brought out green in her eyes. She had a pair of black Nikes with a navy trim to complete the outfit and her light brown hair was left loose and fell in layers framing her face. 

"Hey Marco, isn't that the girl you fell on top of?" Rachel asked bluntly. 

"Yes…well…you know…uh…" Marco stammered, beginning to turn red. He decided to change the topic. 

"This is Jake Berenson, our fearless leader, Cassie Mayfield, the animal nut, Rachel Berenson, a.k.a Xena: Warrior Princess or crazy-mall-crawling-psycho, and Tobias Fangor, our resident bird-boy." 

Tobias upon hearing this glanced at the watch around his wrist. "Uh…sorry but I gotta demorph for a while," he said glancing apologetically at Kris. 

"No, don't mind me, go ahead," she replied in a curious voice. 

Tobias quickly stood up and-thankful for the bag fortress hiding him from view-quickly removed his outer layer of clothing and his shoes and socks, revealing the spandex shorts and tight muscle shirt he wore for his morphing outfit. Giving his clothes to Rachel to hold he quickly began to demorph, the red-tail's feather patterns beginning to show on his skin. 

The other Animorphs kept up their conversation and Tobias participated until his morphing mouth prevented him from doing so. Even so, when his thought-speech kicked in he quickly rejoined the general conversation. 

Pretty soon, Tobias the red-tail hawk was perched on top of the table with Kris staring at him openly. 

"Is that your normal body when you're not in morph?" she asked. 

Yes it is. I was trapped in morph on our first mission but I regained my morphing powers but was still trapped as red-tail. > 

Rachel gently stroked Tobias's breast feathers and fed him a piece of pepperoni. 

Tobias began grumbling something in thought-speech as he preened his wing feathers. I'm getting old.> 

"How can you be getting old? You're only seventeen," Rachel replied, slightly surprised. 

In human years. In bird years I'm much older.> 

"How old are you?" Cassie asked. 

Tobias glanced sharply at her with his ever-glaring hawk eyes before returning to his grooming. That is private information.> he groused grumpily. 

Tobias began to remorph back to his human form. Once finished he took his clothes from Rachel and put them on. He was clasping his watch back onto his wrist when he looked up and asked, "So…what's up?" 

Rachel laughed. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

**2** **Weeks Later**

I was adjusting my tie ready to go to the Grand Gala of the Animorphs. It is, supposedly, in honor of us. During these three years Earth has taken a jump on technology. The Andalites had given us some technology and some Escafail Devises in change to acquire human morphs and a Krispy Crème franchise. The Andalites gave us the Ecafail Devises because they thought it was better if we keep it, instead of 'some Government.' 

"Cassie! You done?!" 

"Hang on! Just…this….last….. strand…… There! " 

She came out looking stunning in a beautiful dark silk scarlet dress. 

She smiled at me. 

"Ready." 

"Uh… Yeah, let's go" 

We went outside to our car, a silver mustang. In this baby it was a ten-minute drive. 

When we got there, a huge mob of reporters were at the front of the huge white building. 

"Oh no," Cassie muttered softly. She hated attention, as much a Marco loved it. 

Suddenly a limo came behind us, and the President stepped out. Then, it got a bit quiet and all heads were pointed one way, not at us and not at the President, but at a white limousine, that was arriving just now. 

A beautiful young woman with blonde hair and blue ayes stepped out. 

Rachel. 

Behind her, Tobias stepped out wearing a black tux. 

"Is that Rachel?" Cassie asked. 

Rachel was wearing a blue dress, of the same color of her eyes, 

She and Tobias walked up the red carpet toward the grand doors. 

We decided to walk behind them. 

"Hi, Jake," A voice said. 

I turned. Marco was behind me, with Kris on his arm. 

"Hi." She said. 

"Hi, Marco, hey Kris," Cassie had come to like, Kris, partly because Kris's father, Matthew Strasser, was Cassie's teacher at her college. 

Behind them we watched a BMW pull up and park not far from our car and Ax and a very pretty young girl stepped out. He waved for us to go ahead. 

"Oh, is that Rachel?" Marco asked glancing ahead. 

"Yup, that's her," Cassie said approvingly. 

"Well, lets go say hi" 

We walked toward Rachel and Tobias. 

Camaras flashed all around as we walked by with, everyone wanted to get a picture of Jake the Yeerk-killer I thought. 

When we reached Rachel and Tobias, we were almost inside the huge arched doorway. 

"Hey! Rachel!" Marco shouted. 

Rachel and Tobias turned around and smiled with four thousand bright white teeth and motioned for us to hurry up. 

We walked a little faster, while Rachel disappeared behind navy blue curtains. We followed. 

"Seat number three-oh four head table, Mr. Berenson same to you Mr. Shields " said the lady in front of the navy blue curtains, that Rachel and Tobais passed through. 

"Thank you" I said to the lady. 

She nodded 

We stepped through the curtains and drew our breath in at the sight. I was beautiful. Big glittery chandeliers hung from the ceiling and reflected the light making the place brighter that it already was. Blue and silver drapes hung from the walls and tables, the tables were elegantly set up, there were roses and tulips at the middle of each of the round tables. Rachel and Tobias were already at the head table talking loudly; suddenly Rachel threw back her head and laughed. 

"I wonder what's so funny," Cassie murmured. 

"Hmmm" 

Sa we reached the head table I felt someone watching me, but then everyone was watching me walk up with a beautiful woman on my arm. But this particular sensation felt like something bad… it was unexplainable really, so I shook it of. I sat down next to 

Tobias, the rest followed. 

Then a booming voice said, "Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen, to our Grand Gala of the Animorphs…." 

[2ndAuthor: Yeah, yeah, yeah you get the idea, there goes the "Today we shall " do this followed by this and that, speech, speeches which I'm not good at.] 

There was a dance floor that I hadn't noticed before, while walking in. Music flowed out mega speakers and some couples began to dance. 

I remembered when the perfect dancing women tried to teach us how to dance waltz and some other songs I had no where they came from. 

"Remember back in school when our science teacher made us dance square dance?" I murmured to Cassie when Rachel, Kris and Cassie cried, "Finally they got it!" They were teaching us 'fluid movement' when dancing to a waltz. 

It was Rachel and Tobias who first stepped out onto the dance floor, and they glided around to 'beautiful music' as Cassie described it. 

I stood up and just about when I was going to ask Cassie for this dance, Ax stepped up to us. 

"Good afternoon, Jake," Ax said cheerfully, nodding to the girl on his arm he said. "This is Irea-Fillean-Collonstar" 

"A pleasure to meet you," said politely, Cassie did the same. 

When Ax moved of to talk to Marco, I turned to Cassie and murmured, "May I please have this dance." 

Cassie smiled and nodded. 

I led her out to the dance floor and took her hand while I slipped my other hand around her waist and started to move gently. I saw Marco step out to the dance floor with Kris. 

Then I felt it again, the feeling that someone was watching me. 

"Can you feel that?" Cassie whispered 

I nodded. I looked around and saw people and waiters… but one particular waiter caught my attention. Even at this distance I could see that his eyes were red rimmed and glowed strangely, and that he was watching me closely. I tried not o pay attention but that feeling never left me. 

As the song ended the food was brought out. The delicacies were brought out and things that I haven't seen before, and some of them smelled a little funky. I leaned over to whisper in Cassie's ear., "What's that?" I asked. 

"Crepés," she replied. 

"What?" 

"Food," she said. 

I went back to look at the 'Crepés' and tried some. Not bad. I was finished before I could think of drinking the Champagné. I glanced down at the plate, and felt my blood run cold. On the ceramic, there was a message: 

**WE, KELBRIDS ARE HERE,**

**AND WILL NOT FAIL LIKE THE YEERKS IN CONQUERING THE HUMAN RACE.**

**YOU ARE POWERLESS TO STOP US.**

I glanced to my left were everyone was sitting and saw that they were staring at me. Beyond them I saw the waiter with the red rimed eyes smile and point at me.   



End file.
